David Michel was preparing to go shrimping when he saw the oil coming at dawn Thursday as he stood on his dock in Caminada Pass just west of Grand Isle.

It started with isolated floating brown clumps that soon gave way to thick bands of oil that coated the shoreline.

"Up until now, the currents had been keeping the oil away from us," Michel said. "But you know your luck has run out when you basically have oil in your front yard."

A month to the day after an April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sent oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the first oil washed ashore Thursday in populated areas from Port Fourchon to the western edge of Grand Isle.

"It's not sheen. It's not tar balls. It's thick, nasty oil," Jefferson Parish Councilman Tom Capella said. "It's like when you were a kid and stuck your finger in the brownie mix."

The oil's arrival prompted Gov. Bobby Jindal and local officials to step up calls for the Army Corps of Engineers to approve a $350 million plan to use dredged sand to rebuild the state's barrier islands as a natural shield against the advancing oil.

"It's much easier to clean oil out of sand than out of a marsh," Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts said.

Perhaps the hardest-hit area Thursday was Elmer's Island, a wildlife refuge west of Grand Isle that has long been a popular spot for bird-watching and beach camping.

Hundreds of oil-coated hermit crabs lay dead or dying along the blackened shoreline, having lost their battle to crawl out of the toxic mess.

Containment booms had been placed across half of Caminada Pass, where several boats were skimming oil from the water's surface. A vacuum truck sucked black oil pooling beneath the bridge to Grand Isle.

By mid-afternoon, about 20 barrels of oily water had been removed, said Bryan Arceneaux, owner of Tank Specialties in Larose.

"I brought my boat down here to go fishing this weekend, but it looks like I'm not going anywhere," Arceneaux said.

Michel, a part-time commercial fisher who also builds boat sheds, said the massive oil leak prompted two customers to put a hold on shed contracts totaling $72,000.

"It's tough. When I don't have construction work, I go fishing," he said. "But now I can't do either one."

Jindal called on the U.S. Commerce Department to declare a commercial fisheries failure, freeing up federal aid for fishers and fishing-dependent communities.

"This oil has already caused a severe disruption in our fishing industry and the total shutdown of fisheries in some coastal communities," Jindal said.

Although the vast majority of Grand Isle's beaches remain oil-free, Thursday's developments were a huge blow for a community that depends on fishing and tourism for its economic survival. A decision about the fate of the International Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo, a three-day event in July that typically draws 15,000 people, is expected to be announced Friday.

Town Councilwoman Leoda Bladsacker, who proudly notes she was born on the island, said she has no doubt Grand Isle residents will persevere -- just as they did after Hurricane Katrina and the other 20-plus documented storms that have battered the state's last inhabited barrier island since 1860.

"We're a strong people, and everyone says God never gives you more than you can handle," Bladsacker said. "So I assume we're going to handle this, but no one knows how long it will take."